Short-handed Hawks Lose 94-85 in Detroit

Box Score

If there's a lesson to be learned from a game that doesn't count, a game wherein the Hawks were without half of their first 10 players, it's that Larry Drew's motion offense, at least in the short-term, is going to generate more turnovers than Mike Woodson's isolation-heavy system did and the definition of "short-term" is likely dependent on how soon a majority of Hawks get healthy.

21 more turnovers last night in Detroit. 6 more turnovers from Joe Johnson. That's 11 in 52 minutes over two (meaningless) exhibition games. Johnson turned the ball over 145 times in 2886 minutes last season.

Michael Cunningham provides an eyewitness account from Auburn Hills:

There is an inherent tension in the Hawks' new offensive approach. The players and the passes move quickly, but patience is required. The Hawks are playing faster, but the goal is to wait for defenders to make mistakes and then take advantage.

...

The Hawks trailed 30-20 after a quarter because Detroit scored 10 points off nine turnovers. The Hawks rallied from 14 points down to within 55-52 at the half because they played more under control.

Josh Smith:

"We've got to to get acclimated with [the offense] and get comfortable and really knowing our spots and where the shots will come from. Once we run it, we always tend to get a good look. We have just got to be patient."

Larry Drew:

"You can't play that fast. You've got to pick and choose your spots to get up and down the floor. If we don't have anything, we have got to slow it down."

It should be different when it's Jeff Teague rather than Reginald Delk playing fast, when it's Marvin Williams rather than Evan Brock playing fast, when it's Jamal Crawford rather than Jordan Crawford playing fast, and so on and so forth but poor transition defense could magnify poor or even just unsuccessful offensive decisions all season.